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No media freedom in Turkey

Authorities in the United States are asking for Turkey to release two Vice journalists who have been imprisoned on unfounded allegations that they were working with ISIS and Kurdish militants. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian (The Point), hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

Britons Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, working for Vice News, were originally detained in southeast Turkey, along with a translator and a driver, for not having proper identification. But now they’re being accused of “engaging in terror activity” and having connections to ISIS.”*

TGS president Ugur Guc pointed out: “80 per cent of the people in Turkey access news solely through television which is controlled either directly or indirectly by the AKP.”

Mr Guc explained how the threat of legal action is used to censor media. “While there are fewer journalists in jail, hundreds of trials are still pending,” many of them for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We cannot pretend that the media are free anymore. The president has built an empire of fear and oppression.”

This week peace campaigner Margaret Owen, who travelled to Turkey to observe Sunday’s elections, described how armed police and tanks were present at polling stations in Kurdish areas, creating at atmosphere of fear and intimidation among voters. She also heard allegations of vote-buying by the AKP.

The November 1 parliamentary elections in Turkey were held under conditions of extreme social tension and escalating violence: here.

To reverse his fortune at the polls, Erdogan reignited Turkey’s war with the Kurds, stood silent while mobs attacked his opponents, and unilaterally altered the constitutional role of his office: here.